Tun M hopes to be sworn in as PM by 5pm today

KUALA LUMPUR (May 10): Pakatan Harapan chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad hopes he could be sworn in officially as Malaysian Prime Minister by 5pm today as he has garnered support of over 135 members of Parliament (MP) support.

At a press conference today, the designated Prime Minister (PM) candidate for the coalition said there is an urgency to form a government immediately today, as the country is now running without a government.

"Pakatan Harapan (PH) has already won a clear majority, and therefore entitled to form the government. We standby the rule of law and Constitution, which states that the Prime Minister must have the majority support from MPs, and be duly appointed based on the Constitution. But there is some delay, which was due to lack of understanding of the Constitution," he said.

"There is an urgency now to form the government today, because there is no government now, Datuk Seri Najib Razak's interim government is over, he has made a very gracious statement that he accepted the verdict of the people and he is no longer the government. If the government is not appointed immediately, the country will not have a government. The first thing to do is to appoint PM, this is the work of the Yang Dipertuan Agong, to appoint the person who has the majority support of the Parliament," he said.

Mahathir also said all MPs under PH and Parti Warisan from Sabah have signed a declaration that they supported him as the seventh PM of the country.

"We hope by 5pm today, we will have sworn in. Because when there is no government, there is no law, no Constitution, and no institutions to govern the country, because in the eyes of law they don't exist," he said.

"Now all the declaration letters have been cleared, the leaders of the four parties of the coalition have written letters to the King, asking the swear in of the seventh PM to be sworn in now. The King is not required to clap. He's only required to sign.

"All the parties in PH, together with Warisan, they all signed the declaration that support the candidate to be the PM, whose name is Dr Mahathir. Together with a few smaller parties in Sabah, we have well over 135 member of Parliament," he said.